1) Nerf the darkness. If you find seeing during the 18 hours of night in the game a little too difficult, you can manually adjust the gamma setting in the useroptions.ini file. I set the gamma to 0.490000 and honestly, it's a little bright at night but I haven't bothered to go in and tune it down. Now throw away your flashlight.
Here's a youtube on how to get to and edit that file:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDhZtYbeeBk
2) Dominate mobs by using "poke em in the eyes" then shoot em in the head. "Q" for push back, imo is currently very over powered. Face any melee target and spam your Q button while holding Rclick with a bow. You poke em in the eyes, push them back a step or two and it stuns them for a second. Ample time for you to aim and shoot them in the head. Let them run/walk up to you, don't panic just keep spamming the Q button, it won't go off til they're in range: push back first, then shoot the head (aiming dot works well in their mouth). Using this technique I haven't taken a hit from a zombie or wolf (that I've seen first) in forever. If you can get close enough to a deer you can stun lock them as well instead of trying to snipe them. I'm skerd to try it on a bear... maybe I'll make a trash alt and try it
.3) If you see a bear, turn the other way and run... keep running. Too little reward for the risk of attacking bears. Sure those 100% energy bear steaks are tasty but you know grizzly poop smells like forest rangers for a reason. Even if you wanted to kill one it takes a good few shots from a gun to take it down. Now if they dropped bear sinew instead of animal fat which I could then use for a wooden bow that might be worth the risk, but as is just run away.
4) A lot of people shred their shirt as soon as they spawn. On a PVE server I found it much harder to find a new shirt than a strip of cloth and the shirt is 90 extra carrying space. If you find a blade early it's even easier since you can harvest a zombie for cloth strips. If you don't have a blade to harvest using pushback you can kill zombies with little effort and about one out of every 10 will drop a loot bag which may or may not have a strip of cloth. It's the first strip that's the hardest since you may need to kill zombies with your flashlight or a branch and push back doesn't work as well with melee. Once you can make your fist makeshift bow, it's easy sailing from there. Depending on how loot drops on release, cloth strips may be easier to obtain as well. Just check cars/containers/etc. Don't be afraid to just ask someone for a cloth strip if you see someone too, most people will afford you a strip or two (or may even give you enough for a satchel)
